I forgot what it’s like to cycle on flat road! I probably shouldn’t (and won’t!) get used to it.
My day started after breakfast at the motel/hostel. It started at 7.30am, so I figured I’d hang around and get a bit of a later start to the day with a full stomach. I shouldn’t have been surprised when I showed up for breakfast and it was cereal and toast. Lesson learned! I finally got out of the motel/hostel (after having to carry my bike and gear down 3 flights of stairs) around 8.45am and was on my way.
I relied on google maps and my bike computer for most of the day to get me to Mara Lake. Fortunately, this meant staying off the main highway for most of the day as I cycled past most of the lakes the Okanagan is known for.
After riding for a few hours I hit a fork in the road. Google maps said to go one way, and my bike computer said to go the other. I decided to take the road down a dirt path, and 100% made the right decision. The path is actually a filled in railway that’s no longer used! It was awesome because it went right along the lake, AND railways are FLAT (the highway route was the opposite of flat). Biking on this path was one of the highlights of my trip so far.
I was fortunate enough to have taken this lakeside route for about 20km! I was feeling great.
Eventually (sadly), the path came to an end and it was back to navigating through city–this time it was Vernon. I zig zagged my way through the (small) city, and was finally back on uninterrupted stretches of road. Only 40km to go.
I was racing a rainstorm to get to Mara, but eventually ran out of steam and had to stop for lunch. This gave the storm the leg up on the race. After a quick stop at Subway, I was back on the road hustling to beat the storm clouds that were intersecting my route.